Peter Feaver serves on big think panels at the Aspen Ideas Festival

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Peter Feaver, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University, recently served both as interviewer and expert on panels for the Aspen Ideas Festival. "The Aspen Ideas Festival is the nation's premier, public gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to engage in deep and inquisitive discussion of the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our times. Some 350 presenters, 200 sessions, and 3,000 attendees comprise the annual Festival, launched in 2005, on the Aspen Institute's campus in Aspen, Colorado."1

"For 60 years, the US government has been laying secret doomsday plans to save itself in the event of nuclear war — even while the rest of us die. Today, a third generation of doomsday planners are settling into life inside a network of bunkers that are staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, ready to house top government officials in the event of catastrophe. How did these Cold War-era plans come together, how have they evolved over time, and how prepared are we for a worst-case scenario?"2

"The Trump Administration says it is “committed to a foreign policy focused on American interests and American national security” and that “the world will be more peaceful and more prosperous with a stronger and more respected America.” Others have called Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement, waffling commitment to NATO, and abandonment of the TPP dangerous acts of isolationism that will create a vacuum of American leadership, and openings for others to reorder the world. Meanwhile, complex national security challenges continue to build, alongside a mountain of questions, as the Trump White House reiterates its strategy of keeping an element of surprise. So what will the Trump Doctrine be? How will this administration wield American power? Will it all amount to America first? Or America alone?"3